Meet The Speakers

Dr. Barbara Patrick is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Administration at Eastern Michigan University. She also serves as the chairperson of the Faculty Senate Task Force on Campus Climate, Race & Diversity Issues and Director of Community Outreach for the Department of Political Science. She has given invited lectures and organized workshops addressing systemic racism, issues of diversity, local partnerships and collaborations addressing the needs of underserved communities, policing in communities of color, and uses of administrative discretion in police officer dismissals.

Cozine A. Welch, Jr. is a Community Researcher for the Carceral State Project. He is also a formerly incarcerated poet and educator. His work has been featured in The Michigan Quarterly Review, Plough Quarterly, the Periphery and eleven consecutive volumes of the Michigan Review of Prisoner Creative Writing, where he served as Managing Editor. Cozine is also the co-instructor of the Atonement Project and the Theatre & Incarceration courses at the University of Michigan, classes that focus on restorative justice, reconciliation, atonement, and the role the arts play in healing and rehabilitation. Cozine is the former executive director of A Brighter Way, a 501(c) nonprofit that focuses on providing mentorship and wraparound services to those formerly incarcerated in Washtenaw County.

Jeff Irwin is an American activist, progressive and politician serving as a member of the Michigan Senate since 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he served on the Washtenaw County Board of Commissioners from 1999 to 2010, and in the Michigan House of Representatives from 2011 to 2017.